The US Department of Defense is being sued by an Iraq veteran who claims that the US military has become a de facto Christian organization:

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.

In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.

“I think it’s utterly and totally wrong. Unconstitutional,” Hall said.

Hall said there is a pattern of discrimination against non-Christians in the military.

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, “Do you believe in Jesus now?”

Hall isn’t seeking compensation in his lawsuit — just the guarantee of religious freedom in the military. Eventually, Hall was sent home early from Iraq and later returned to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas, to complete his tour of duty.

He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.

“I was told because I can’t put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn’t make a good leader,” Hall said.

Michael Weinstein, a retired senior Air Force officer and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is suing along with Hall. Weinstein said he’s been contacted by more than 8,000 members of the military, almost all of them complaining of pressure to embrace evangelical Christianity.

[Emphasis mine.]

If true, that’s absolutely unconscionable. It’s apparently not enough that someone is willing to put their life on the line for their country. They have to pray to the right God, too. Eight thousand complaints. Eight thousand, coming not just from atheists, I’m sure, but from Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc.

With the current state of military recruitment, I don’t think we can afford to discriminate against people, or refuse them promotions, or turn them away, just because their religious affiliation isn’t the “right” one (or they won’t “play nice” and pretend to have the “right” one). We should be accepting every loyal, able-bodied person we can get.

Devoutly religious people wonder why people like me object to their insistence on injecting their religion into all areas of public life. This is precisely why I object. When religion starts to become a tool for exclusion, for dividing “us” and “them” in areas having nothing to do with religion, it’s gone way too far. Better not to even start down that road.